"How many will survive?"

August 19, 2017

"How many will survive?"

Hélio Flores, Ex-Heroes, March 21, 2017.
Reduced to pillars, not as pillars of society, but those of long bridges:
"- We ended up a bridge"

The past week has been ripe with debate on the political implications of monuments. Statues of men of the past, who do not deserve the right to be awed in public places and the only reason for remembering them is to take to mind how they deliberately worked against their fellow men denying them of their humanity.

Hélio Flores creates monuments of today's politicians in Mexico in his work, in some cases in the literal sense as in his cartoon above. The empty space between the two monoliths constitutes a statue in itself on their reputation carved in the emptiness, while above them the representative of The Transnationals embody the statuesque power going forward with the heavy implications he entails.

Hélio Flores, Silvano In The Rain, May 11, 2016.
"According to (the Governor of Michoacán) Silvano (Aureoles) there is no crisis
in the (social democratic party) PRD":
"- The PRD has a shell with a life of its own and can win the presidency".

Our protagonist is Hélio Flores. He is telling us tales from within the cracks of monolithic stones and along their weathered surfaces.

Across decades Hélio Flores has created a tale on the texture of democracy, on its cracks, lines, chipping from a mankind, whose weaknesses are as old as the ground, the stones came from. The narcissism of being the center of attention, the vanity of fighting to win, and the greed inviting to corruption have let the cracks form across centuries making them visible to the eye.

Hélio Flores, The Blank Vote, June 3, 2015.

The statuesque politicians are not the only withered ones. Their time in office has left its marks on those on whom it hurts. The latter belong to another layer of society, drawn as different species of beings just as we once had different kinds of early humans.

They are worn from poverty and fear, often a mere half-size of those, whose face constitutes a Portrait in society. Portrait with a capital P because Hélio Flores does a sculpted face as strong as if had it been chiseled. We forget they are not sculpted in physical sense.

Hélio Flores, The Last Wish, August 31, 2016:
"May those rabid defenders of the structural reform show their face".
"- If (The president of the Energy Commission, David) Penchyna would
come to explain the benefits of the energy reform to me..."

To the total of the human condition, their texture has yet another layer to it. The printed paper of the newspaper that is the foundation for cartooning, highlighting that each and every cartoon before us is a piece of critical journalism, exposing those responsible and giving the poor and the wretched a voice.

There are journalists with microphones outstretched, the printed word on the front page of news papers laid out, all presenting the facts of a matter to get a reaction from the Portrait. Hélio Flores cleverly brings in the many voices, never interrupting the Portrait, but leaving nothing unexposed.

Hélios Flores, Paper Bomb, April 19, 2017.
"And impunity remains so bitter..."

The exposure carries an all the greater importance in that in April this year a handful of officials were faced with corruption charges. Impunity had till then been a laughing matter, everyone acting as if they were untouchables, which of course they had been, and the road is a long one.

Impunity kills. At its strongest impunity is a deadly political factor and journalists are among its first victims for asking questions.

Hélio Flores, Veracruz, March 24, 2017.
"Veracruz, Morelos, Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Michoacán..."

Responsibility, the refusal of it and the exposure of the refusal, and next year there is a new presidential election.

There will be much need for that occasional neon color highlighting a sickness by way of a tie, along with the textures colliding with clear outlines in that tale on the collage of life that Hélio Flores lays before us: